Good Old Days not same for all

If you were purchasing a home or paying for college, the good old days were roughly 1950 to 1970 - and they were very good.

But for buying a lot of life's other necessities, from a new car to a pound of round steak, these days are the good old days.

While prices were cheaper in bygone times, wages were lower. And for many products and services, the average American has to work fewer minutes, hours, days or weeks to buy them today than in the past.

For instance, it took about 3.7 minutes of labor, on average, to buy a dozen eggs in 2005. In 1950, it took nearly 27 minutes.

In 2005, it took about 10 minutes of labor, on average, to earn enough to buy a pound of roasted coffee. In 1955, it took nearly a half hour to earn the price of that coffee.

However, certain big-ticket items, notably a new home and college tuition, are no longer as affordable as they once were. The average American, who had to spend about three years of salary to buy a new home in 1970, paid out nearly 4.7 years of salary to buy a new home in 2005.

Similarly, tuition for a year at Harvard would have cost the equivalent of about 10 weeks of a typical American's salary in 1950, but for the 2005 to 2006 college year, it would have required the wages of more than three times as many weeks, 33, to pay the bill.

Looking at prices in relation to wages "is an important window into the standard of living," said Diane P. Flaherty, chair of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst's Department of Economics.

However, the good old days for one person may not have been so good for another....